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"Believing Christians should look upon themselves as such a creative minority and ... espouse once again the best of its heritage, thereby being at the service of humankind at large." --Joseph Ratzinger

Webster Bull: Since I have not and will not be seeing Django, let me ask you to realize that there is a difference between revenge and retribution, between mindless violence and poetic Justice, and I trust you will find the truth.Jonathan: Val Jean asked for the bread and was refused by someone who was capable of charity to save his niece's life. Val Jean was justified to steal the bread to save life. Any law can be broken to save life. The penalty imposed on Val Jean was not commensurate with his crime as there were extenuating circumstances. Javiet is the personification of “a state of no mercy” which no one, absolutely no one has the authority to impose, since our God is the God of mercy. Javiet is the personification of no mercy with no justice, both virtues, and of a virtueless and Godless society. Listen closely and learn to choose what you would want for yourself, Justice and life or death without dignity, that is the repudiation of the human soul.

I can see why the book was on the Index. Hugo had some very unflattering things to say about churchmen of the time. HOWEVER, the bishop who saves Valjean and the nuns who hid him and Cosette and who took care of the dying Fantine are treated very well by Hugo because of their simplicity and imitation of Christ. Perhaps the placement on the Index was more retribution than anything?

As the brother of a fan of the original spaghetti Western series Django, I'm boycotting Tarantino's version—that series needed a reboot, but then he had to get his braindead blaxploitation fetish all over it.

Les Mis is sorta old hat, since my family's been obsessed with that musical since the mid-90s. In the Japanese production, the guy who played Valjean was Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef. Yep.

Isn't Les Mis an anti-Catholic screed underneath? The French Revolution, which the play/movie is contextualized in, was certainly a Holocaust on Catholics and the inspiration of the Communist takeover of Russia.

Les Mis is not set during the French Revolution. And while I understand the novel contained anti-Catholic/anti-religious elements, those did not translate into the musical. The one visibly "religious" character in the show, the cardinal or bishop or whatever, is portrayed as a saintly man, whose generosity & mercy spark Valjean's own conversion.